Mark Gilbert , Columnist

Common Euro Bonds Can Smoothe ECB's Market Exit

Centralizing bond sales would send a powerful signal about the euro's longevity.

March 17, 2017 at 11:16 AM UTC

Mark Gilbert is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering asset management. A former London bureau chief for Bloomberg News, he is author of “Complicit: How Greed and Collusion Made the Credit Crisis Unstoppable.”

Let's get the band back together.
Photograph: FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP/Getty Images

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The prospect of a halt to the European Central Bank's bond-buying program at the end of the year removes a powerful bulwark against rising government borrowing costs. Together with the rise of anti-euro parties in Europe, it has also spooked investors. Now, perhaps it's time to resuscitate the old idea of centralizing bond issuance by all euro members.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy revived the issue of common bond sales in comments to his domestic parliament on Wednesday: